We are living in interesting times. Through social media tools, we share in experiences in ways we would never had access to a decade ago. Certainly, we had the Internet then, and with it instant messaging (ICQ, anyone?) and online forums (Kids? Go ask your parents about Usenet. Better yet, look up your parents using it’s successor, Google Groups. You won’t regret it). But more likely than not, even if your words were out there (and it was primarily words, not images, and certainly not video) only a small group of people were connecting to you, and even then it was only during the times you were online.What happened in the meantime is that we have opened our lives up so that if we chose to, our work histories are available on LinkedIn, our analyses of the last Presidential debate are posted to Twitter and our vacation photos are seen by anyone who can put together a search in Flickr. Tools to connect through the Web have become ubiquitous and fast, and for those of us texting on our Sidekicks while we clean the house it’s a bit like the brain-computer interface of science fiction made real: we are not “jacked in” per-se, but we are never “off line” either.It’s a bit scary yes, but at the same time quite amazing. For instance, having a backchannel open during presentations provides opportunities for learning and collaboration, as well as forcing speakers to be more transparent. But then that’s what happens when you can fact-check a statement through your web browser and then text your colleagues about your findings without once raising your voice.

Curious about connecting with the 2008 PRSA and PRSSA International Conferences online? Look through the list that follows for starting points, and remember — even if you don’t feel comfortable participating in the conversation, the value of listening cannot be understated.

Blogs and Websites

ComPRehension will be the home base for blogging the 2008 PRSA International Conference. Check here for new blog posts from speakers and thought leaders throughout the conference. You can subscribe to the blog’s RSS feed here

Help this list grow!
While rss feeds and search tools make the online world more navigable, they by no means can provide you with links to every way you can connect to the PRSA and PRSSA conferences. That’s why we need your help and support to make this resource complete.

Please:

Let me know if a hashtag or tag for the PRSSA 2008 International Conference is agreed upon to identify content on Twitter, Flickr, YouTube.